The doomed Liberal inquiry into fracking for unconventional gas in the South East has been thrown a lifeline by the Greens.

Next Wednesday (19th Nov), the Legislative Council will vote to establish a Parliamentary inquiry into fracking to be conducted by the Environment Resources and Development Committee, which has both Upper and Lower House MPs from Labor, Liberal and Green parties.

The Terms of Reference for the Inquiry are IDENTICAL to those proposed by the Liberals in the Lower House this week, focussing on the South East of SA and the potential impacts of fracking on farming and the rural landscape.

“The Libs have been too tricky by far and now they have no choice but to support the Greens’ inquiry, which has identical terms of reference to their own,” said Greens SA Parliamentary Leader, Mark Parnell MLC.

“If the Libs don’t support this inquiry, it will expose their hypocrisy and destroy their credibility amongst farming communities in the South East.”

The proposed Liberal Inquiry into fracking is doomed because:

It won’t be formally moved until 10th December (when Parliament won’t be sitting!)

Parliament is being “prorogued” at the end of the year, which means the Notice Paper is wiped clean

The motion would need to be re-introduced in February 2015

When it eventually goes to a vote, both lower house independent MPs will vote against it and it will fail.

On the other hand, if the Libs vote in favour of the proposed Green Inquiry into fracking, it will succeed because it also has cross-bench support.